Carol's Art Adventures: Art and Identity: The Museum of Modern Art

Art making is a personal endeavor that communicates the experiences of the artist. The best kind of art has the ability to surpass an artist’s individual experience, and communicate to the experiences of a broader audience. An artwork can relate to the identity of an individual, it can relate to a specific cultural identity, and it most definitely relates to the identity of the time during which it was created. “Cindy Sherman” and “Contemporary Galleries: 1980-Now” are two exhibitions that expressed these different types of identity.
During my class first filed trip to the Museum of Modern Art, we viewed a couple of artworks from “Cindy Sherman” and “Contemporary Galleries: 1980-Now” exhibitions. I found the “Contemporary Galleries: 1980-Now” much more interesting. Martin Kippenberger’s “Untitled” from the Series Dear Painter, Paint Me; is an artwork that embodied individual identity. It shows the artist sitting down on a sofa on a down town street corner in 1979, when he visited New York City. Another artwork that represents personal identity is Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled”, a black and white photograph of the artist empty bed. Being that Torres artwork mainly deals with something about AIDS or educating yourself about the disease. I feel like he is showing the audience his sadness about losing his partner to AIDS. The photograph shows an empty bed with the imprint of two bodies. The two imprints representing Torres and his partner and the emptiness of the bed as a symbol of his partner’s death.
Mariko Mori “Star Doll” is another example of how identity is expressed through art. When I looked at her piece I automatically thought “this has to be a Japanese artist”; the piece is of herself as a computer-fabricated pop star. The dolls outfit looked like that of Japanese pop culture/fashion. As a fashion lover, I like to explore the world of fashion and see what people from different cultures wear and their styles. One of those cultures being Japanese pop culture; their style is very unique and colorful, just like Mori “Star Doll” piece. As I read a little about the artist I was not surprised to read that she’s from Japan and a former fashion designer, among other things. Also Claude Closky “Beautiful Face” is an example of culture identity. This artwork being directed towards the female gender; Closky artwork looks to be a Christian Dior makeup AD with two images of eye shadow overlapping the bigger images in the background.
Another identity that is seen through art is the historical identity. “Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta” by Kara Walker, is a print that illustrates slavery during the Civil War. The artwork is a reproduced illustration from Harper Pictorial History of the Civil War and layered with a caricatured silhouette of African Americans. Representing a historical time where African Americans were kept as slaves and were withheld freedom. Walker also uses positive and negative space - a silhouette within a silhouette – to bring attention to the “African American boy who is loading a caravan of white civilians ordered to evacuate following Confederate Army losses in Atlanta.”
In conclusion, creating art is a personal endeavor that communicates the experiences of an artist. “Cindy Sherman” and “Contemporary Galleries: 1980-Now” exhibitions expressed ways of communication seen through individual, cultural, and historical identity. It excites me to see how artwork can vary, showing not only that all artworks are just about portraits, people, and buildings. But also how art can demonstrate and teach the audience things that they did not know of as well as look at good art.

"Contemporary Galleries: 1980-Now"